At 11:12 PM 11/19/97 +0100, you wrote:
>Chip,
>You're wrong here. Both the Lotus Elise and the Renault Spider use
>an aluminium frame. The Renault one is welded together, and the Lotus
>is glued in a very high tech process using an autoclave curing among
>other oddities. And both sell rather good actually - 2 seat roadsters
>as they are...
>/Odd
Well, other people have pointed out that the new Corvette is using Aluminum
for parts of their frame, also (don't know if the whole thing is or not).
The AIV I saw had the major superstructure made out of Aluminum, and Steel
box-sections on the front and back - but, they could very well be made of
Al in the near future, as well (or so I was told).
One thing that's cool is the way they use Al Rivets for parts of the frame.
They're huge, and the neat thing is that as the chassis gets broken in and
driven, it actually gets tighter and stiffer. Neat, huh?
Which Renault? Don't know if I've seen it - probably not going to send it
to the States. I've seen the Elise, only because there's a Lotus importer
near where I live, and they've got a Purple one they've been driving
around. It doesn't pass US Crash or Emissions tests...
Gee, all this talk of Aluminum and Rivets is making me want a Series Land
Rover again... :)
Chip
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Chip Mautz
Greenbrier & Russel
Atlanta, Ga
"Life is too short to drive boring cars"
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